Dambe So is expanding. Places available at the social hostel in Piedmont double.

Rome (NEV), 30 June 2026 – by Giovanni D’Ambrosio

Early June, the 2026 harvest season. “Are they starting today?” “No, not yet. You can see they’re not ripe yet. But with this heat, it’ll definitely start next week.”

They’re talking about blueberries. Tiny blue berries that, every year in the countryside between Saluzzo and the Po Valley, mark the start of the harvest season. From blueberries to cherries, via peaches, apricots, plums, apples and kiwis. Every year, around 10,000 seasonal workers make their way across the roughly 15,000 hectares of the so-called ‘Saluzzo fruit district’. Some come from Sicily, where they’ve just finished harvesting potatoes; others from Calabria, Campania, Puglia or Basilicata. Many travel from north to south. Some know the orchards of the Cuneo area well because they’ve been there in previous years; others are drawn there by friends or acquaintances.

Working conditions have improved slightly compared with a decade ago, when workers were paid between 4 and 6 euros an hour. Today, the hourly rate generally ranges between 7 and 8 euros. Some say there are farms that pay as much as 8.50 euros. The working days, however, remain long. Despite the heat, there are few breaks, apart from a short lunch break around midday. They set off early, by 7.00am, and only return home at 6.00pm or 7.00pm.

Home. A word that can refer to very different types of accommodation. Most workers sleep on the farms where they work or find a place to stay through friends or acquaintances. A mattress in often overcrowded flats can cost as much as 150 euros a month, on top of other expenses. Those who cannot find accommodation in this way can apply to join the ‘distributed accommodation schemes’ organised by some local councils in the area. Those who cannot persuade their employer to contribute towards accommodation costs, or who work in a municipality that does not participate in the scheme, risk being left with nowhere to sleep. Or they may actually end up there, like the dozens of workers who spend every summer night sleeping on cardboard in the Gullino Park area of Saluzzo.

As the blueberries began to ripen and the first workers arrived in the Saluzzo area, the Dambe So social hostel in Revello – opened by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy in June 2025 at the entrance to the Po Valley – was also preparing for the new season by expanding its facilities.

To understand how Dambe So came about, however, we need to travel over a thousand kilometres to San Ferdinando, in Calabria. Here, in 2022, not far from the tent city, the first Dambe So hostel for seasonal workers opened – another initiative of Mediterranean Hope, the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy’s programme for migrants and refugees. The idea is simple: to offer decent accommodation to workers and to demonstrate that it is possible to put an end to ghettos. Since then, the number of flats has increased. Today, scattered across the Gioia Tauro Plain, there are 17, providing over 60 places.

From 2024, following the routes of seasonal work, the project has also reached Piedmont, in the Saluzzo area. First in Verzuolo, then in Revello.

Thanks to the expansion carried out in early June, the number of places available has risen from 15 to 27, 23 of which are in Revello alone.

But Dambe So is not just a place to sleep. Since it opened, it has also become a space open to civil society. In recent months, it has hosted film screenings, debates, concerts and meetings. Some have taken part in the events, whilst others have made more tangible contributions by donating a washing machine, a fridge, bed bases, mattresses or other items useful to the hostel’s running.

An initiative aimed at further enriching the hostel has been launched by ‘Una torre di libri’, the cultural festival scheduled for 9–12 July in Torre Pellice, in the province of Turin.

This year’s edition will see, from 9 to 12 July, the construction of a tower of books in the square, built using donations of second-hand books. The collected volumes will then form the basis of a small library open to everyone, housed right inside the Dambe So hostel in Revello.